Dreams Tulum Wedding Review- Amy706 w/pics

[Jess]

great review Amy!

[amy706]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ida Amy, Beautiful wedding! You looked gorgeous! Congratulations! Thanks for the review! btw, was the bonfire worth it for $50? How long did it last? Yean

Yeah the 50 bucks was a set up fee for the staff. I paid it in cash to Landy. It was a nice chill thing to do. $50 wasn't that much amongst everything else but it probably lasted - with a decent flame- about 80-90 minutes. If you do it- just ask for extra wood. i bet they'll leave it for you?!?! Snacks or smores or whatever is extra and per person. i didnt think that was worth it. I bet you could bring our own (buy it at the supermkt in tulum)- rather than pay teh $12 per person or whatever it is for the food at the bonfire.

[amy706]

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Originally Posted by amy706 FOOD AT THE WEDDING- Grade: A We did the buffet. Originally we thought we had to because we had 70 people and then we learned we could do sit down if we wanted but upon thinking about it decided to do a buffet anyway. We didn’t want dinner to drag on too long, especially since the DJ had to stop by 10:30. we wanted time to dance and party! Anyway, everyone I spoke to said they thought the food was great. We had the ultimate package so we had the gold menu. We chose items from the gold menu and some from the silver. Here’s what we had. I tried to have a bite of each thing and everything I tried was quite good. I don’t recall it all (too much champagne plus it was dark in there so I couldn’t always tell what I was actually eating). Here’s what we had and comments where I recall. 2 appetizers Bruschetta with prosciutto, tomato, and fresh basil --- THIS WAS AWESOME!!! LOVE LOVE SHRIMP FRIED QUESADILLA – don’t remember 1 soup Tortilla Soup – didn’t eat 2 salads GRILLED VEGETABLES WITH AGED BALSAMIC Caesar salad with blackened chicken – this was actually REALLY good. I was surprised by how good the chicken was. 3 entrees Surf & Turf, Mignon and Shrimp with a gravy sauce and malted butter --- the filet was actually delicious! Fresh Salmon in a puff pastry with a delicious peppers sauce – kind of blah Chicken Breast filled with a creamed spinach with peppers sauce – I don’t remember this but I had several people comment about how good it was. 1 dessert Fruit tart with amaretto mouse ** this is what I ordered but I noticed they also had tiramisu out there for dessert. That was nice of them! J OHH!! I also wanted to say that I was SOO impressed with the set up for the buffet as well. It was beautifully done. I havne’t seen any photos of it yet but will post some when I get it. Beautiful! RECEPTION SET UP- Grade: A We changed to the Seaside Grill (from the beach- original plan) as it was really windy the first 2 days we were there. It ended up not being that windy so we could have done it on the beach but the transformation of the Seaside thanks to Karla letting me use her chiffon material to drape around the ceiling- was gorgeous. Obviously we brought down the paper lanterns, we brought LED candles they placed all around, etc. Looked great- I thought. HUGE thanks to Karla for letting me use the material. Landy just charged me the $150 set up fee. THANK YOU KARLA CAKE- Grade B I only had the one token bite of cake and it tasted great. I went with the GOLDEN 03 (WITH FLOWERS THAT MATCH OUR BOUQETS) Flavor : VANILLA Filling: STRAWBERRY. I wish I would have eaten a whole piece of packed a piece for later. I heard from people that it was great. In my opinion it didn’t look exactly like the picture but it was still pretty. I wasn’t terribly picky about this. I do wish that I saved some to eat though. I was too busy dancing at this point! MINI-MOON- The MEZZANINE (small boutique hotel in Tulum)- Grade: A The day after the wedding, we went to the Mezzanine. It was exactly what we needed. Only about 9 rooms. Completely solar and wind powered but very chic and cool. Gorgeous beaches, incredible rooms. 1-4pm every day 2 for 1 margaritas. HIGHLY recommend it! It was sort of expensive (we had the master suite for 450 bucks a night- but the regular rooms are much less!) Oh and they have delicious food. The breakfasts were AMAZING. And fabulous organic thai food! mezzanine | tulum, mexico I would do it all over again exactly the same a million times over! You all were such a support and help to me so feel free to ask me any questions! PM if I can help with anything!!!

I just realized an entire post - a big chunk of my review did not post!

FLOWERS – Grade: A+ on bouquets, B- on corsage/boutinierres
I was nervous about the flowers after talking to Cant Wait. However, when we talked to Landy I showed her a picture of what I wanted with a small change (add bird of paradise). And the bouquets were GORGEOUS. I loved them, loved them. I too was VERY disappointed with the selection from the florist. Seriously… just roses… in Mexico!?! So taking everyone’s advice brought pictures (and sent them earlier to Landy- she had them). And they created it beautifully. I hadn’t really thought out what I wanted for boutineires and corsages for the moms and grandmother so we just decided on the fly. They had limited colors on the lilies so we went with white- which was a little plain on the GM in their khaki linen suits with white shirts but oh well. The corsage was just 1 gerbera daisy on a string basically. It wasn’t such a pretty color (more purple than fuschia) but you gotta roll with it a bit when in mexico. Most important to me were the bouquets and centerpieces and they NAILED it. Landy gave the florist the little light things for the vases and the clear rocks for the vases and they looked really cool!



WEDDING CEREMONY- Grade: A
Scheduled for 4pm and started on time. Landy did a great job playing all the right music at all the right times. The ceremony itself was gorgeous. The minister spoke very good English and read our ceremony word for word. We had my brother and Mike’s aunt each do a reading. We had them pick it out or write it themselves. They both made their own or a combo of something written with their own. And then another aunt read the hands ceremony and she personalized it and made it fit us more—I LOVED that it was so personal this way. Loved the readings. Then since we didn’t do a unity candle (normal mom role) I had the moms each read a part of the sand ceremony. They all 3 came up together. Everything went really smooth.






BUTTERFLY RELEASE- Grade: C
My FI was very big on this idea. Landy tracked down this vendor for us then we dealt directly with her. She was nice enough… 30 butterflies cost about $160. Mike had a really hard time direct depositing ½ the amount before we left. He spent hours on it and each time he’d ask her for a number he needed, she’d give him a whole different bank info. It was weird and we started getting nervous it was sketchy. When we got to DT, she contacted Landy actually while we were meeting with her. So anyway, we decided to do it which meant we had to cab into Tulum and go to the bank to direct deposit the money. We gave Landy the other half of the money and Michelle dropped the butterflies off to Landy right before the ceremony. We only told the flower girl about this and after Mike and I kissed, when I turned around the flower girl was at the tail end of releasing the butterflies. I assume Landy must have come over and handed them to her but I didn’t see. I have yet to see a single picture with a butterfly in it so I’m not quite sure if this was worth both the money and the hassle. Like I said, this was mike’s thing, not mine. Hopefully at least one or two of those babies will show up in a picture or two!!

Contact info:
Michelle Weil Treviño
Imago Riviera Maya
Liberación de Mariposas
Cel (99 1113920
Liberacion de mariposas, Mariposas para eventos, liberar mariposas

COCKTAIL HOUR- Grade: B
We had our cocktail hour in the plaza area outside of the chapel. I actually liked the location as it has that sort of hacienda/Spanish feel to it. I was doing pictures most of the time but did get to spend a few minutes at the cocktail hour. I didn’t hear much being said about the mariachi band although I saw them and it was cool to have them. I popped one app in my mouth- it was fine. Nothing to rave about but good enough.
Here are the apps we had:
1.- MUSHROOM STUFFED WITH CREAM CHEESEWITH BLACK TRUFFLE
2.- SMOKED SALMON ON MELBA BREAD
3.- PROSCIUTTO AND MELON
We asked Landy to serve margaritas and mango daiquiris and I gave her those little umbrella drink toothpick things. I saw a couple people walking around with a cute margarita glass with an orange stuck in the toothpick. It looked cute. I was told that the drinks and apps would be passed but I got the feeling they were sitting in a table in the middle of the plaza. No biggie though. People lingered a while at the beach taking pics. Then everyone was shuffled over to the Seaside grill for the reception. Mike and I were introduced, did our first dance, etc.



DJ MANNIA- Grade: A
He was great. We had some special instructions in terms of not only announcement song, first dance, etc but I surprised mike by singing him a song in the middle of dinner. Carlos was the only one who knew and he did a great job. Anyway, we gave him a suggested list of songs to play but told him we trusted him and to use his best judgment and keep the crowd going. He played mostly songs from our list but went off a little. At the end of the night, I noticed he did not play one single slow song! I had some on my list- mostly for the older folks but truth be told- nobody except maybe the parents and an aunt or uncle or two really cared. We danced all night. It was AWESOME. I had given him enough money for the cold fireworks but we changed location from the beach to the seaside and he was not able to light them off. He was ready to give me money back but at that point (tipsy and SOOOO happy with the whole day) I let him keep it as a tip. Boy was he excited!! J


FIRE DANCERS- Grade: A-We had arranged this ahead of time for a cost of $200 for 20 minutes for 3 people. A pretty good price I thought. Well Can’t Wait warned me when I saw her but they recently switched vendors and the price doubled. I was annoyed and tried to get more out of it from Landy but she would’nt budge. It was a surprise for our guests and they enjoyed it but it was more than we wanted to spend. I asked Landy how come she didn’t let me know before I left (b/c I confirmed this detail with her not too long ago). She said she just found out. Hmm.. would have liked a proactive communication beforehand but it it is what it is. And quite frankly I bet all of them have been swamped with no chance to breath and catch up post closing and reopening.

[BC Bride2be]

Congrats Amy, you looked beautiful!, it was so wonderful to hear that everything met your expectations… and then some!! I was worried about the salon and getting my hair done but feel much better now knowing yours went so well! I’m curious to know how your video turned out as well, can't wait to see your pro pics!

Did you email your vows/written ceremony before going or did you just give it to Landy when you got there?

thanks again for the great review!

[latinalocany]

Amy

i really enjoyed your review!! you look soo beautiful!! im soo happy everything went perfect for you!! cant wait to see more pics!!!

[amy706]

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Originally Posted by BC Bride2be Congrats Amy, you looked beautiful!, it was so wonderful to hear that everything met your expectations… and then some!! I was worried about the salon and getting my hair done but feel much better now knowing yours went so well! I’m curious to know how your video turned out as well, can't wait to see your pro pics! Did you email your vows/written ceremony before going or did you just give it to Landy when you got there? thanks again for the great review!

I'll let ya'll know about the video when we get it... who knows when that will be. I feel a bit nervous we didn't get it before we left (but we left DT the day after our wedding).

I send Landy the whole ceremony before and then I brought copies just in case. But when we got down there she had already sent the ceremony on to the minister so he could practice. He did a great job! The vows we wrote ourselves and just brought them with us. We both read them off of a paper. We didnt have the minister do the whole repeat after me thing on our personal vows.

Happy to help! The brides who came before me were SOOO instrumental in my planning. I'm happy to give back in anyway I can!

[sdtooley]

Absolutely wonderful review Amy!

You have made me even more excited about having my wedding there next summer. I enjoyed your very positive outlook and comments about everything. You answered a lot of questions that have been going through my mind. So thank you for such a detailed review!

 

I am curious about your DJ because he sounds wonderful! How much does he charge and how long did you have him there for?

 

Thanks again and I look forward to reading more!

[SunBride]

wow, there was even more to your review! Maybe ask one of the mods to add a comment at the end of your past post on page 1 to say something like "REVIEW CONTINUED ON PAGE 4" so that people don't miss it

[amy706]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdtooley Absolutely wonderful review Amy! You have made me even more excited about having my wedding there next summer. I enjoyed your very positive outlook and comments about everything. You answered a lot of questions that have been going through my mind. So thank you for such a detailed review! I am curious about your DJ because he sounds wonderful! How much does he charge and how long did you have him there for? Thanks again and I look forward to reading more!

I had him for 5 hours for $1,000. I think its $850 for 4 hours and then we added an additional hour for $150 more. I've only ever heard great things about him.

Sunbride- is there a certain mod that moderates for DT or riviera maya? good suggestion!

[Melissa24]

Amy-

 

Your review is awsome!! I have been having horrible nightmares about the food after reading Karla's review, and definetly feel better after reading yours. Who did you use for your photographer? Did you use the one at the resort or someone diffrent? Oh and did you have your make-up done at the salon?